Report: Cops seek brother of man shot dead in San Francisco

KOMO NEWS

Published 2:35 pm, Sunday, July 24, 2011

The brother of a man shot dead during a shootout with San Francisco police last week is now the focus of a manhunt himself, wanted for questioning in connection with a homicide in Seattle, according to reports.

The name of the brother was not released, but police in San Francisco have issued an "all-points bulletin," warning that he may be headed there, officials told KGO-TV in San Francisco.

They say the man being sought is the brother of Kenneth Harding, 19, who was identified as a person of interest in the July 13 shooting of 19-year-old Tanaya Gilbert in South Seattle. Harding was fatally shot last weekend during a confrontation with officers in San Francisco.

Investigators initially thought Kenneth Harding was shot by a police bullet, but they later determined that he shot himself in the neck with his own gun, which was a different caliber than the police weapons. It's unknown whether he shot himself on purpose or accidentally.

Now Harding's brother is wanted for questioning in another homicide in Seattle, San Francisco police tell KOMO News.

Seattle police spokesman Detective Mark Jamieson declined to comment on any possible connection between Harding's brother and a Seattle homicide.

But Jamieson did say Seattle police are investigating the beating death of a man on S. Garden Street early Saturday.

Jamieson says officers were called to a home in the 5100 block of Garden Street around 3 a.m. They arrived to find a 50-year-old man, unconscious with severe head injuries inflicted by a "known suspect."

Efforts to revive the man failed, and he was declared dead at the scene. The suspect remains at large.

Kenneth Harding was released from a Washington state prison in April after he served 22 months for attempting to promote prostitution involving a 14-year-old girl in King County.

When he was shot, police wanted to question him in connection with the July 13 death of Tanaya Gilbert, who was seven weeks pregnant when she was gunned down while sitting in a parked car in the 9600 block of 54th Ave. South.

Three other people were wounded in that shooting.

Kenneth Harding next turned up in San Francisco a few days later when officers tried to question him on one of the city's light rail platforms.

Officers say he bolted while firing several shots in their direction, and police returned fire.